


all this time wondering where i need to be is behind me

by nosecoffee



Series: but turn out the lights? we're too clever for that [4]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Asexual Jughead, Asexuality, Commited Relationship, Graduation, He could murder me and I'd say thanks, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Proposals, Swing sets, asexual character/s, healthy relationship, i fuckin love him, some mentions of vomit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 11:59:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10019855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosecoffee/pseuds/nosecoffee
Summary: "I guess," he allows, "I just really need a reason to go.""No," Jellybean argues, "what ya need is a reason to stay.""Well, I have got a reason to stay, haven't I? She's four years-old, and gorgeous." Jughead takes her hand carefully, watches her smile.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "How Far I'll Go (Reprise)" from Moana
> 
> Please let me know if my representation of Asexuality is inaccurate or offensive

They graduate.

It feels, for Jughead at least, like schools been taking the backseat for a while, meanwhile everything else in his life was sorting itself out.

It's not exactly a surprise that it's over.

It's just a little sad, and he shouldn't be sad that he finally never has to do gym ever again, but he thinks he'll miss it.

Archie kisses him after the ceremony.

"We're not gonna kiss in front of the entire town," Jughead protests, but the look on Archie's face numbs him and he lets him kiss him.

~

Jughead thinks he overhears things sometimes. Things that don't make sense to his sleepy mind.

Stuff like when he's on the stairs and hears Fred say, "You're positive?"

And Archie replies, "Dad, I've never been more sure about anything in my entire life."

Jughead shakes his head and continues up the stairs, already forgetting what he thinks the words might mean.

~

Archie walks into the room, fiddling with something in his pocket.

Jughead raises an eyebrow from his place on the bed, before turning back to the screen of his laptop and sighing at the blank page that's supposed to be Chapter 47.

There's a clattering noise and Archie dives for the floor.

Jughead sits up properly, closing the laptop as he's resigned that no work will be done tonight, and peers at what's visible of his boyfriend. "What're you doing down there?" He asks, watches a small smile come into view, a flood of nervousness in his eyes.

"Dropped something." He says, voice steely, but kind.

Jughead rolls his eyes, putting his laptop to the side, tutting teasingly. "I invite you into my room, and you just come in and drop stuff. What a slob you are, Archibald Andrews."

"Forsythe Pendleton Jones the Third." He frowns, looks at Archie, kneeling now, on the roughened, scuffed floorboards.

Shakes his head. "I never should have told you my real name. Shoulda kept it to 'Jughead' and been done with-" and he's not looking at Archie.

"Will you marry me?"

Jughead blinks. Licks his lips. Thinks the sentence over, wondering if he's perhaps having a stroke, or a very weird dream.

Pinches his arm and scowls when it hurts like bitch and nothing changes.

Jughead slowly turns to look at Archie, full on, taking in the little box in his hands, the one he's fiddling with.

Archie's face is bright red, the way Jellybean's gets when she sees Veronica. He's biting his lip.

He never does that.

"Will I-" Jughead inhales still wondering vaguely if this is a joke. "Say it again."

Archie's eyes search his. Clicks his teeth together before saying, "Forsythe."

Jughead slides off the bed, into a crossed leg position. This way, Archie's taller than him. "Not that bit."

"Will you marry me?" There's a certain hint of fear in the question, a string of dread, of vulnerability.

Jughead wonders just how much of his soul Archie is baring right now.

He wonders if there's a way to do this without seeming uncaring or cliché. Or both.

Jughead doesn't know what to say.

Wait, that's not true.

He does know what to say.

'Yes' is what he wants to say. Doesn't know how to say it.

He runs his hands carefully up Archie's soft forearms, up onto the fabric of his three-quarter-length sleeves, to his shoulder, up and into his hair.

In the end he just pulls Archie towards him, holds him as close as he can bare and whispers, "yes."

~

"You like Archie, right?" Jughead glances at the little girl on the adjacent swing set. She's swinging ever so slightly, but she turns to look at him when he speaks.

There's a red ribbon in her hair, and a tilt to her right arm that implies a break, not long ago.

"Love Archie." Jellybean responds, gripping the chains, and swinging her legs wildly. Jughead takes the silent demand in stride and pulls her swing back.

"He wants to marry me," Jughead says.

"Archie's gonna be your husband?" The little red sundress Jelly's wearing flutters around her knees as she swings.

"That's definitely the plan." He agrees, sees her bright smile when she turns fractionally to look at him.

"An' you're not going after, are ya?" Jughead frowns.

"What d'you mean?" Jellybean kicks her legs and Jughead catches the chains, bringing the swing to an abrupt stop that makes Jelly laugh.

Then she grimaces. "People leave after, sometimes. They go away, and sometimes they come back, and sometimes they don't, but they send Christmas cards."

Jughead licks his lips and sits down on the second swing. "No, Jelly. We're not going after. We're staying right here. Gotta be with you to take care of you, you know?"

Jellybean shakes her head. "Not for a while. Auntie says I gotsta be 18 before you and Archie can take care of me, all proper."

"So I gotta wait fourteen years. No big deal." Jughead shrugs and smiles softly at her, usually a smile he saves for early, rainy mornings when he's wrapped up warm in Archie's arms.

"You sure? That's an awful long time to wait. Wouldn't blame ya if you wanted somethin' better."

"I couldn't leave you if I tried." Jughead insists, much to her distaste as she frowns, like she ate a lemon and is not pleased one bit about it.

"Don't lie to me, Juggie. You've always wan'ed to leave. You jus' never had the chance, and now ya do." He doesn't think he's ever appreciated just how intelligent Jellybean is. Or how perceptive.

"I guess," he allows, "I just really need a reason to go."

"No," Jellybean argues, "what ya need is a reason to stay."

"Well, I have got a reason to stay, haven't I? She's four years-old, and gorgeous." Jughead takes her hand carefully, watches her smile.

"Just don't forget to stay for Archie too," she says.

"I won't, Jelly. Gotta stay for my beautiful little sister and my pretty fiancé."

"You're too nice, Juggie." She says, blushing red in the neck and ears.

"Only the best for Jellybean Jones." Jughead assures.

~

"What are you buttering up Fred for?" Archie asks as they head towards bed after a movie night with Archie's dad. They had a Star Wars marathon and Jughead nit picked nearly all of it.

"I'm getting him ready for when we tell him that we're engaged." He replies, following Archie up the stairs.

Archie stops and turns to look at him with a confused expression. "Jug, I already told him."

"You did?" Jughead asks in surprise.

Archie shrugs. "Yeah. Since you got to tell Jellybean, I figured Dad was fair game."

"Oh, okay." He guesses that makes sense, but he's sad he missed the look on Fred's face when Archie told him.

"Who d'you want to tell next?" Archie bumps their elbows.

"...Betty." He decides on.

"Betty?"

"Betty."

"Alright then, I'm telling Veronica."

"Best reaction wins."

~

Jughead: hey

Betty: it is literally two am what do you WANT

Jughead: I have something vaguely exciting to tell you

Betty: make it fast I wanna sleep

Jughead: Archie proposed

Betty: proposed what

Betty: wAIT

Betty: HE P R O P O S E D???

Jughead: that's what I said, yeah

Betty: CAN I TELL RON?

Jughead: Archie's already on it

~

Archie: Jughead and I got engaged

Veronica: #nice

~

"I think I lose." Archie says mournfully before showing Jughead the screen. Jughead does the same and Archie rolls his eyes.

"Ha." Jughead says and pecks Archie on the lips.

~

"So, I'm allowed to bring Betty as my date, right?" Veronica asks, looking at her phone between sips of her chocolate milkshake.

"Sure." Jughead responds, resisting the urge to remind her that Betty was already invited.

Veronica frowns. "Or maybe she's bringing Kevin."

"No, Kevin's invited anyway, and he's bringing his Friendly Neighbourhood Crack Dealer Boyfriend." She laughs.

"Oh, then that works out perfect. What's Jellybean doing? Flower girl? That'd be so cute."

Jughead snorts, "She's my Mate of Honour."

"Is that like Maid of Honour?"

"Yep. She's gonna give a speech and everything." She grins across the booth at him.

"I'm down, you're fucking adorable, Jug."

~

Someone asks him if he thinks they're rushing into things, if it's too soon.

He says, "I've been waiting to marry this boy since the second grade."

~

_To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, 'til death do us part._

There's something profound in those words, Jughead supposes.

And it makes him feel like a cliché, because honestly, it took a lot of time to carefully extract himself from Archie's arms in a way that didn't wake him up.

Sitting slumped by the toilet with bile rising in his throat makes him feel like a walking cliché and he hates it.

Jughead dry heaves, having already vomited twice, nothing left to bring up.

He rests his head on the toilet bowl, aware of how disgusting it is and sighs.

There's a soft knock at the door.  
"Jug? You in there?"

There's a part of him that doesn't want Archie to see him like this.

He ignores it.

"Come in."

Archie doesn't say a word, just strokes back his hair and hugs him close when Jughead gets cold in the tiles.

~

_'It's not forever, but it's as close as I'm getting.'_

He doesn't remember telling Archie the line in the middle of the night, but he finds it written on the mirror anyways.

Turns out, he didn't.

"I just thought it was nice," Archie says, looking sheepish.

"I might use it," Jughead replies, watches him beam.

~

"I've already spent what feels like forever with you. I want to spend the rest of it with you too."

"You sap."

~

They don't leave, just like Jellybean requested.

Jughead isn't sure that after all this time he ever truly wanted to.

He thinks he's okay with that, if it means Archie will stay.

And every marriage has flaws, he knows, because if it was perfect, it'd be a pretty boring part of his life.

Jughead has yet to discover all of the flaws of his, but he's pretty sure he's going to murder Reggie for breaking Archie's nose in a football game and indirectly making him snore.

There's a solid minute where he considers just smothering his husband.

And then, he kisses him awake.

~

He thinks he can live with this.

Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I really hope you enjoyed this. If you did, please feel free to leave a comment and/or a kudos, and track me down on Tumblr @nose-coffee. Again, thank you.


End file.
